Story Two : Shinka's P.O.V.

Have you ever felt so close to someone…that no matter where they are, what they're doing, or who they're with, you worry? And when they're not with you…you're filled with anxiety, and constantly find yourself wondering over whether they're really fine, or in some sort of danger? Not to mention you can never really help but feel the way you do. Making things so much worse.

"Oi! Shinka! Snap the hell out of it damn it!" It seemed that I had trailed off in thought without noticing. Of course Sanjii just had to do the honors of bringing me back to the wonderful world of reality. In other words; he smacked me upside the head.

Rubbing at the back of my head I looked to my right, giving Sanjii a quick glare, "I would say thank you, but there were really better ways to go about 'waking me up'. Rather than hitting me."

"Now why would I pass up a chance to hit you?" Sanjii grinned rather widely. I wasn't the least bit surprised when he started laughing either. Damn monk laughed at everything. "The hell were you thinking about anyway? Even though I do have a faint idea what…"

There was no real point in explaining. I mean, Sanjii could tell when I was wondering over something. Or in this case, someone. "It's just…wasn't Candy supposed to be here a good twenty minutes ago with Akka?"

Sanjii chuckled at my response, giving me a few elbows in the side before explaining what he knew. And for some reason…he always knew where everyone in our tiny guild was, and what they were doing. "candy and Akka are in Payon cave. Knowing them, they lost track of time."

So that's what she had been doing all day. I couldn't help but let out a small laugh. The only reason Candy ever wandered to Payon cave was to get some extra zenny. "Alright. We'll just keep waiti--"

"Shinka-chan!" Before I knew what was going on, I had been tackled to the ground by something sopping wet.

Shaking m head I looked up to see a grinning Candy. Although her hair was dripping and all of her clothes were way past damp. "Candy! The hell happened to you? You're soaked!" Well, turns out that I was pretty 'soaked' as well. Come to think of it, that was probably the real reason behind her tackling me.

"It's Akka's fault!" She immediately told me in a huff, now…for some reason, sitting in my lap. Don't get me wrong. I didn't care at all.

"What? I did nothing. Nothing I tell you!" Oh. So Akka had come along with Candy, can't I know why I hadn't noticed him until know.

I smiled as Candy crossed her arms, turning to Akka who was attempting to shuffle away, since Squish had gotten awful close to him "I do believe that you were the one who pushed me into that icky pond!"

"I'm not complaining." Sanjii muttered loud enough for all four of us to hear, his eyes trailing down to Candy's shirt, which was still sticking to her skin. Soon enough he was grinning, and rather wickedly at that. "Cold?"

"Sanjii!" Candy quickly covered herself with her arms, her cheeks bright red. It took her a fair amount of time to figure out what Sanjii was talking about. Innocence I suppose.

There wasn't a chance in hell I was going to let Candy go anywhere until she was perfectly dried off. She could catch colds and what not rather easily, you see.

It took only a few hours for Candy to be ready to go. She was still a tad upset of Sanjii's perverted statement. I guess she wasn't all that used to his sudden unwanted comments.

"If anyone misses this warp, then you're outta luck." Sanjii said to the three of us. Of course, he was looking straight at candy the entire time. She has back luck with warps. Always missing them and all that jazz.

Right when the monk had summoned up a warp to the third floor of Geffen dungeon, Candy had clung to me arm. Didn't seem as if she was going to be letting go anytime soon either.

"Still don't trust Sanjii, huh?" I grinned, seeing her and Squish both giving Sanjii a glare at the same time was always amusing to me.

Oh. Why didn't Candy trust Sanjii? Well. One time he had warped her to the wrong place, intentionally of course, and she had to walk for quite awhile in order to get back to where the rest of us were patiently waiting.

"Of course I don't…" She mumbled as I walked into the warp, Candy right at my heels, with Squish dangling off of her shoulder. Still, of course, clinging to my arm.

In the blink of an eye we were deep down in Geffen dungeon. Luckily there weren't any monsters around. It always sucked whenever we were caught off guard. Because…well, Candy would normally be the one to get chased by all of the monsters around us. With the exception of Deviruchis. I think Squish had something to do with that. But, I don't want to even think about that evil thing's plans.

In a matter of five seconds, we were joined by Akka and Sanjii. Before either of them could make a comment about the situation, Candy interrupted.

"EE! Lookit the lil' 'ruchis!" Candy squealed, suddenly letting go of my arm and running off with Squish towards two twitching deviruchis. I didn't worry too much. The little monsters never attacked her after we caught her precious Squish.

"Don't go running off…" I groaned, rubbing at my temple afterward. Nothing good ever came from Candy running off on her own. Nothing. If it were Sanjii or Akka that had gone off on their own, I wouldn't have cared at all. But Candy had horrible luck when it came to running into monsters that were two times stronger than her. They just loved her, I suppose.

"Shinka-chan!" Whenever Candy yelled my name like that, my automatic reaction was to get ready to fight a hoard of monsters that would be trailing behind her. But, surprisingly, she wasn't running away from anything, not yet…at least. Coming back to my regular senses, I took notice that Candy was carrying three deviruchis instead of the regular one.

"We ain't keeping' 'em." Sanjii interrupted with a grumble, before Candy could so much as open her mouth to beg me. Whenever she was denied anything that related to deviruchis, she became very distraught. Looking down at the ground she pouted, letting the two 'ruchis she had found run off to wherever they pleased.

"Sanjii…you party pooper." Akka said as he stuck his tongue out at Sanjii. Him and Candy were undoubtedly the most childish of our guild. Yet another thing I found quite amusing.

"We already have one devious little pet in our group.' I told Akka, who quickly took into account that more deviruchis would be a bad thing. He was already pretty damn petrified of Squish.

Then…everything became eerily quiet. Something real bad was going to happen. I knew that much. Turning around I grabbed Candy's hand, making sure she was still there, and not being attacked by anything she couldn't handle.

"Um…guys…" Akka squeaked, shuffling as close to our small group as he could. "Doesn't uh…that Doppleganger thing wander about in this general area?"

Of all the things to mention at that moment…he just had to go and mention that particular monster. Never have we gotten away from that damn thing without getting hurt in he process. Or dieing. Not to mention Candy was positively frightened of the thing. She always started shaking whenever it was mentioned. Now was no exception.

Sure enough, right after Akka had mentioned the monster, it, and a gang of Nightmares teleported just behind us. Naturally, Candy screamed. Sanjii and Akka had already bolted in one direction. I decided that was probably the most ingenious idea ever.

Since I knew Candy was most likely too scared to even move, I scooped her into my arms and ran as fast I could. Even though I was running in the opposite direction Sanjii and Akka had gone, I didn't really care. All I did care about was getting out of there…and…Candy.

After a fair bit of being chased, I found one of the many crumbled walls that were scattered about. Skidding to a halt, I hid behind it, Candy still in my arms. I wasn't going to be letting go of her any time soon.

"Holy shit…" I laughed to myself after I knew our little monster buddies were long gone. Turns out that Candy had saved my ass for once, instead of it being the opposite way around. She had thrown a bunch of ankle snare traps behind me as I ran, which obviously slowed down the mob of monsters relatively well.

Now, however, Candy was having her own little 'break-down'. She was clutching Squish, who had been in her arms from the time she had let the other two 'ruchis go, to now. And to the best of my knowledge, she was crying.

"Candy…?" I muttered, my voice a little raspy from all of that recent running. She looked up at me after I had said her name. Her cheeks were stained with tears, while her hat was just a tad askew.

My automatic reaction was to pull her into a tight hug, giving her shoulders a gentle squeeze and assuring her that everything was okay. Well. Now it was.

"Shinka-chan…" Candy managed to say over a few sniffs and sobs. She pulled back a tiny bit, looking up at me, a few tears dripping down her cheeks. I didn't even notice that I had been wiping away said tears with my thumb, causing Candy to blush a tiny bit. "I…I have a question for you."

I had slid down the wall in order to sit on the ground, my legs were far to tired to hold up my body weight any longer. So now, I was leaning against the wall, while Candy was basically laying against me. I took notice of her statement rather quickly, raising a skeptical eyebrow before giving her a faint nod. "Ask away."

"D'you think I'm…weak?" She didn't even look me in the eye as she asked her little question. I guessed that she felt ashamed for…yet again, acting like such a child in a serious situation. I didn't care. Akka didn't care. Even Sanjii didn't care. He may have made it seem the other way at times, but…he knew that was the way Candy simply acted. She was…'timid', you could say.

To be honest. I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. Candy was always thinking far too lowly of herself. "Of course I don't…" I truthfully answered. In all reality, the little hunter could kick some major ass if…she constantly didn't run away. Before she could deny my answer, I interrupted her my placing my hand over her mouth. "Don't try and make me think otherwise. I know, Sanjii knows, Akka knows…you ain't weak. You just have…bad…luck."

Aha. My ways of comforting had worked! A smile. Oh yes. "Th-thank you, Shinka-chan." Candy laughed lightly, pushing away my hand gently before wiping away the tears from her cheeks. At least she wasn't as upset anymore. I always looked at it as my fault whenever she was upset.

Everything was silent again. Although it wasn't as 'eerie' as it had been before. Candy was staring up at me. I was staring down at her. She didn't seem to care when my arms had trailed their way around her waist, in fact, it caused her to smile even wider than she already had been. I could feel my heart skip a beat when Candy inched even closer; crawling up my torso, if you may.

Finally. For once it seemed as if one of our 'moments' weren't going to get interrupted by anything/anyone. But. I took into account that my assumption was most likely wrong, so…I took now as my only chance. Leaning forwards I quickly whispered into her ear; "Don't be too surprised." before pressing my lips against hers. Oh how she jumped. I told her not to be too surprised. Guess my warning didn't have much of an effect with her. I assumed it wouldn't.

I was anxious as to what Candy's reaction was to what I had just done. Slowly I pulled away from her, I knew my face was beat red. So was hers. Making it not matter all that much. "Candy, I…I--"

"OI!" Fucking hell Sanjii! He ruined everything. Tonight…I was going to sabotage his diner. Yes. Candy had rolled over to sit beside me the instant she had heard Sanjii yell. Him and Akka were obviously searching for us. See. That's why I took my chance when I could, instead of stalling…like I…normally did in those type of situations.

I stood up just as Sanjii walked around the corner of the little hiding place I had come across, Akka close behind him, looking a tad flustered. Looking down at Candy I noticed that she was seemingly off in her own thoughts, a wide grin spread across her features, while her cheeks were still rather red. Her eyes weren't even fully open. I stopped trying getting into that head of hers awhile back. It was real cluttered in there.

"Okay! So Shinka and Candy were all along in a heart-stopping situation. Now I wonder what they could've turned out doing in the end…" Sanjii grinned, looking over at me with a knowing expression in his eyes. That is…before he was pelted in the side of the head by a rock.

"You dirty little wanker!" Candy growled before bolting upright, running after Sanjii with a hand-full of rocks. Squish hesitated, looking up at my for a tiny bit. He had been watching the entire time Candy and I had that…little…moment. So now he knew more than anyone else in our guild. I swear the little devil winked at me before running after his owner.

That thing was just as bad as Sanjii…